Notebook: Tech dominates West Virginia

Will McKay | RedRaiderSports.com Staff Writer

Tuberville proud of his team

The Red Raiders came out and absolutely shook up the Big 12 race by defeating West Virginia 49-14 on Saturday afternoon in Lubbock. Tech got out to a 14-0 lead in the 1st quarter and never looked back. Head football coach Tommy Tuberville was extremely pleased with his team's performance and is ready to get things rolling in the second half of the season.

"Overall, I can't be any prouder for all of them," he said. "We've got a good team. We knew that going into the season. We're halfway through. We've had one little blip on the screen. We're not going to celebrate this one past tomorrow. We're going to go back to work and make sure to understand that if you win, you come back and work hard. If you lose, you come back and work hard. I'm really proud of this group in the first half of the season."

Davis has best game of career.

Of all the Tech defenders, none had a better game against the Mountaineers than senior strong safety Cody Davis. He had a career high 12 solo tackles and made most of them in open space. Tuberville loved the effort from the senior leader and praised his play.

"I was really proud of Cody Davis. I think he made 13 tackles. There were several times that he was one-on-one matched up, as several of our players were, against number one (Tavon Austin) in the open field. You've got to get him down. Most of the time, they did that."

Davis felt good about the way he played as well, but focused the attention on the Red Raider defense. Tech allowed 408 yards and two touchdowns against the Mountaineers, and he couldn't be prouder of the way his teammates played.

"It feels great. I think we're back to where we want to be. We kind of fell off last week and kind of took it personal. Everybody was wanting to know how it feels to face the great offense and the Heisman hopeful, but we get excited for that, and you could see it out there on the field. Everybody came out there ready to play, and we played great on defense."

Amaro shines in victory

Sophomore tight end Jace Amaro had a coming out party of sorts against West Virginia on Saturday, posting his first 100 yard receiving game as a Red Raider. The big target finished the game with 156 yards and a touchdown on five receptions, including an impressive, field crossing 61-yard run. Tuberville loved Amaro's tenacity, saying that he embodied the spirit of the team.

"They hit him, and he hit them. He's big, he's physical, and you know, he's a big target across the middle when he runs crossing routes, but he has no fear," he said. "He came back and played, threw up the entire halftime. He's a football player. You can just tell his enthusiasm kind of bleeds over into the other guys. He's just a sophomore. He's kind of what signifies what this whole group is about. They love playing."

Foster impresses as well

Of the running back corp., no one had a better day than junior tailback Sadale Foster. The back had a fantastic 53 yard touchdown scamper down the sideline right before halftime and showed off patience and quicks all afternoon.

"He keeps getting it done. He's not very big, but he's got great vision," Tuberville said. "They had five or six in the box and he kept making plays. The one right before the half, we ran a power play that Neal had put in, and the offensive coaches did a great job on the running game."

Brown happy with offensive output, Doege's performance

After what can only be called a disappointing performance against Oklahoma last week, Tech came out shooting against West Virginia, putting up 49 points and 676 yards of total offense. Offensive coordinator Neal Brown was glad that his unit came out and proved to the nation that they are, in fact, an elite offense.

"I'm really proud of how they bounced back. We preach playing hard and trusting the process. They played super hard, and I really thought they played hard," he said. "Very unselfish group. A lot of guys stepped up. I thought it was big that we put this together, offense, defense, and special teams at home for our home crowd. I thought it was big today."

He was even happier for his senior quarterback, Seth Doege. Doege had a career day, completing 32 of 42 passes for 499 yards and six touchdowns. Brown thought the senior came out slinging and couldn't have been prouder of the way he played.

For him to come back and play this well, especially in this setting. You're playing the number five team, and the other guy across the way is the Heisman trophy front runner, and to come out, and he threw for almost 500 yards, man he played -- I can't say enough about the kid as a person, character wise, leadership. He came out and played loose, and he was on point today.